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India: Breaking tradition, a woman performs nikah (marriage)

Source:

Times of India

"A Shia woman solemnizing marriage of a Sunni couple. If that was not enough, the nikah that made Lucknow sit up in disbelief, was to have only women as witnesses."

Twenty-nine could be a trifle young to make history, but then Naish Hasan, an economics post-graduate and a woman rights activist managed to do it within half-an-hour on Monday night by opting for an "all- women" nikah even as maulvis scoffed and scowled in the background.

"Someone has to make a beginning and break the shackles of male dominance in Islam. I have volunteered," Naish told TOI. "I consider myself fortunate for there are not many who can practise what they preach," she added. "This is a message I want to send across to young girls and a protest I want to lodge against subjugation of women."

Her conditions were no less unusual. "I have told Imran I will not dress up as a traditional bride. There will be no vidai; there will be no barat and no dowry will be given," she said. The nikahnama she proudly displayed, categorically mentioned that the husband will not have the right to pronounce triple talaq at a sitting and the wife will also have a right to pronounce talaq if she so desired. "My humble attempt to demolish the patriarchal mind set," she smiled.

"Don't expect any frills. It will be a simple ceremony," she had forewarned. So the only concession Naish made for the occasion was donning an embroidered maroon sari. Surrounded by co-workers from Tahrir and Indian Muslim Women Movement, she looked a little edgy when Sayda Hamid, member, Planning Commission and her role model who was to double up as a maulvi for the D-day got a little delayed. Groom Imran, a PhD from Aligarh Muslim University, looked a little lost yet contented. And some of the guests were betting if Naish would cover her head or not at the ceremony.

Hamid began by reading out Qoranic verses about equality among mates and sanctity of the union. All murmuring stopped and in the pin-drop silence she asked the man and the wife to be if they accepted a 'meher' set for Rs 51,000? They both loudly declared their acceptance as cameras rolled and flashbulbs popped. The only deviation was adding a male witnesses to all women club. This was necessitated with the clerics pronouncement that the nikah would be null and void if not witnessed by a man.

As per her conditions, Naish will not leave her city and keep working. Having a woman officiating at the nikah is "impractical and therefore not advisable", said Maulana Khalid Rahsid, a cleric from Firangi Mahal of Lucknow.

14 August 2008

Source: Times of India

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India: When a Woman Conducts the Nikah - Muslim Marriage Ceremony

By: Dr Syeda Hameed

I was taken by complete surprise when my friend, Naish Hasan, called me one day. "I want to give you good news. I am getting married. And I have decided that you will perform my 'nikah' (Muslim marriage ceremony)," she said. I have known Naish for several years for her activism on women's issues. Her request was unexpected. I had never thought that I would one day be a 'qazi'.

At my own 'nikah' there had been a male 'qazi' who, interestingly, also performed my son's 'nikah' 25 years later. I did not question the fact that my 'qazi' was a man but I always questioned my 'nikahnama' (marriage certificate) - a 'kora kagaz' (blank paper) in terms of the blandness of its content. I often asked myself why the conditions of marriage and divorce were not specified in it?

So I readily agreed.

I am sure I was not the first woman to perform a 'nikah' in the Islamic world. During the days of pristine Islam, when there were women 'muftis', 'qaris' (recitors of the Qur'an), and 'muhaddassin' (experts in Hadith i.e. sayings of the Prophet) there must have been women 'qazis'; but there is no historical record to prove or disprove their existence. The one inexorable fact is that with the revelation of Islam came women's empowerment in every sense - marriage, property, business and matters of religion. It is a tragedy that a religion, which spoke of women as equals of men in every respect, has come to be regarded as suppressive and dismissive of women.

I come from a family of religious scholars and reformists. Among the social reforms they propagated was giving status and dignity to women within the context of Islam and the Shariat (Islamic law). My most illustrious ancestor was a man whose name one hundred years ago was known in every Muslim household. Maulana Altaf Husain Hali's immortal work was a long poem 'Musaddas-e-Hali' (also called 'Ebb and Tide in Islam'). His other landmark works 'Chup ki Daad' ('In Praise of the Silent') and 'Munajaat-e-Bewa' ('Lament of the Widow'), on the status of women, decry patriarchy, lambast society for the plight of the widow and extol women for their hard work and superior intelligence. He is India's first feminist poet. Inspired by him and with the help of scholars like Dr Sughra Mehdi, former Professor of Urdu, Jamia Millia Islamia University, I helped found the Muslim Women's Forum in the year 2000.

Before I agreed to perform Naish and Imraan's 'nikah', I looked through the Qur'an for injunctions pertaining to marriage and anything inimical to a woman performing the ceremony. I found nothing. I then consulted a friend who I regard as the most erudite and learned Islamic scholar; he is a doctor by profession and at age 94 is more intelligent and aware than scholars half his age. He told me that of the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence, Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafei, Maleki or the fifth Fiqah Jafariya, there is nothing that says a woman couldn't perform a 'nikah'. "Show me one line in the Qur'an and Hadith, which says that the 'qazi' should be a man," he challenged.

I knew that the only requirement for an Islamic marriage was the presence of witnesses and the fixing of 'mehr'. What I did not know then was that the presence of a 'qazi' is not an essential requirement. Since Islamic marriage is a civil contract, the man and woman can enter into it like any contract involving give and take, promise and performance. They can do it themselves as long as they do so according to the civil laws of contract. They must, however, have witnesses present from both sides.

Naish and Imraan had four women Sabira, Zakia, Noorjahan and Naaz, as witnesses in place of the mandatory two male witnesses enjoined in the 'Qur'an'. They also had one man, Nayyar Raza, as witness. Their 'nikahnama' had been prepared by the Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and unlike mine and 99 per cent of 'nikahnamas', this one stipulated many conditions of marriage most of them pertaining to protecting the interest of the woman and dignity of the man. Among them was a condition that Imraan would not 'enter into a second marriage during subsistence of this first marriage as monogamy is the stated ideal in the Qur'an. These conditionalities were in keeping with Islam, which permits the two parties entering a 'nikah' to include in the marriage contract, any conditions they agree upon.

Islam requires the woman's 'mehr' to be agreed to at the time of marriage. 'Mehr' is the amount the man agrees as the woman's dower, which is payable immediately, but if deferred is compulsory payment in his lifetime. I have not known any man who paid 'mehr' at the time of marriage. When I announced the 'mehr', Imraan, the bridegroom, said he wanted to pay 'Mehr-e-Muwajjil' (immediate). The cheque was handed to the bride.

One more aspect of this 'nikah' was unusual; that a 'qazi' of the Shia sect performed the marriage of a couple of the Sunni sect. Frankly, it hadn't occurred to me that the Shia-Sunni question would come up in this context. In my family, Shia-Sunni marriages were common. My husband was a Sunni. Maulana Hali himself was a Sunni. My sister married a Sunni. In these cases, the 'nikah' was performed by either by a Sunni or a Shia 'qazi'. In my childhood, I saw Shias and Sunnis sit together during Moharrum to mourn the martyrdom of Hussain, grandson of the Prophet. In schools of Islamic jurisprudence there is nothing about the sect of the person performing the 'nikah'.

On August 12, 2008, history was made. A woman performed the duties of a 'qazi'. The media projected it before the world. Hard work by Muslim women's organisations, which have given due respect to the 'alims' (Muslim scholars), has resulted in most 'ulemas' (Muslim scholars) giving their seal of approval. Today, a new 'nikahnama' has been placed before the 'ummah' (community), which protects the rights of the Muslim women. Naish and Imraan are doubly blessed by Allah because they have become the instruments of restoring the true meaning of the Qur'an and Islam. All the current hype about Islam being anti-women and a patriarchal religion is negated by the courage of the couple, their friends and Muslim women's groups in showing what is real and meaningful about women in Islam.

I feel humble that I was part of this moment. It was an idea for which the time had come. Let this be a small beginning of restoring the image of Islam, which has become blurred and distorted over decades of misinterpretation and mystification.